Minister of Energy Stuart Young.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad--Trinidad and Tobago’s 30-year agreement with Venezuela to develop the Dragon Gas Field is not with that country’s state-owned energy company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), this country’s Energy Minister, Stuart Young, said in the Senate Tuesday.
Responding to a motion on the adjournment by Opposition Senator Wade Mark, requesting an update on the Dragon gas arrangements, Young said, “Fortunately once again, for the people of Trinidad and Tobago, it was an intelligent, confident and competent PNM government that negotiated the licence for Dragon. That same 30-year licence is not anywhere related to PDVSA.”
Young said the 30-year licence is with the Government of Venezuela, which is a sovereign entity.
“There is also a concept called sovereign immunity, so while you may have a decision against a commercial entity called PDVSA, and payments with respect to PDVSA, that does not automatically equate to the Government of Venezuela,” Young said, adding that the Trinidad and Tobago government had the foresight to structure the deal to exclude PDVSA.
Meanwhile, High Court Judge Frank Seepersad on Tuesday granted two US energy companies, which have successfully registered their US $1.2 billion arbitration award against PDVSA, an extension to serve the court documents.
Seepersad granted the extension as Phillips Petroleum Company (Venezuela) and ConocoPhillips Petrozuata BV’s case against PDVSA and two subsidiaries came up for hearing Tuesday morning.
During the hearing, Justice Seepersad expressed concern over the fact that the documents in the case had not been served on PDVSA and its subsidiaries after he granted the order registering the significant award locally late last month.
“Natural justice mandates that the other side should be afforded an opportunity to be heard. This court will, however, not condone any abuse of its processes. Neither will it tolerate its issued order being held over the head of the defendants like the ‘Sword of Damocles’,” said Seepersad.
The judge noted that the arbitration proceedings, which led to the award, were conducted in English and held in the United States. Seepersad pointed out that the companies could serve the English version first and serve the translated version at a later date.
It was agreed that the documents would be served in English before the end of the week.
Justice Seepersad ordered that the Spanish translation be served by July 9.
Provided that the order is complied with, PDVSA and its subsidiaries will have until July 17 to decide whether they would apply to set aside the registration of the debt.
In their court filings, the companies claimed that they began doing business in Venezuela after that country’s government offered tax incentives and majority equity stakes in long term energy projects.
The companies brought arbitration proceedings after the Venezuelan government expropriated its extra-heavy crude oil extraction facilities in the Orinoco Oil Belt between 2004 and 2007.
In April 2018, a tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) upheld the companies’ case and ordered the compensation.
Attached to the ConocoPhillips claim is an affidavit from company’s lawyer Stephen Hayes, of United Kingdom law firm Kobre and Kim, who spent a significant portion of his evidence dealing with the Dragon gas field project.
Under the project, which has been under discussion since 2016, the National Gas Company (NGC) and Dutch energy giant Shell were allowed to develop the gas field previously held by PDVSA and supply natural gas to this country via a pipeline connected to the Hibiscus platform off the north west coast of Trinidad.
Hayes pointed out that in August, last year, Shell and NGC committed to reimbursing PDVSA for all its legitimate claims arising out of its earlier investment in the field, which it estimated at approximately US $1 billion.
~ Trinidad & Tobago Guardian ~
